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Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Why? By recording your coincidence stories here, you can help him build a picture of what kinds of coincidences are out there and which ones seem to ‘get to’ us the most. Your coincidence stories can also help him explore the scientific explanations which may account for them – whether by doing the maths to calculate the chances of a coincidence, or speculating on the weird and wonderful workings of our brains.

Coincidences tend to be ‘surprising matches’ – sometimes they are lucky, sometimes unlucky, sometimes just mind-boggling. To help you recall the coincidences that have happened in your life, here’s a list of some common types of coincidence:

Surprising repetitions: for instance when you’ve had not contact with someone for ages, then find two connections to them very close together in time. Or when over several years multiple members of the same family are born with the same birthday. Or even a repetition of a really rare event – like winning the lottery twice, or your life being saved twice by the same person!

Simultaneous events: for example when two people phone each other at exactly the same time.

Parallel lives: such as when two people in a small group find they share a birthday or an unusual name, or when two people discover their lives match each other in bizarre details.

Unlikely chains of events: perhaps you lost your false teeth overboard and found them inside a fish you caught twenty years later?

If anything coincidental has happened to you - anything that made you stop and say "well, what were the chances of that..?" - then please record your story in the form below! Please try to keep your story personal - about you or someone you know. The only thing we'd ask you to steer clear of are premonitions or déjà vu, purely because - whilst fascinating - they're quite common and also difficult to analyse.

You could also tell us about coincidences in the news, but please provide a link to a reliable source!

Title: two or three words that give a simple description of your story, eg ‘old friend’ or ‘birthday coincidence’Coincidence: tell your coincidence story - and please include plenty of relevant detail (places, dates, numbers etc.) and include your first name if you want.Email address (optional): please leave an email address, as then we can get in touch to find out more!

All of the information entered below except your email address will be published on this website when you press save

Title *

Your Coincidence *

Coincidence stories can be considered as ‘meaningful matches’. Please click the type of story (you can click more than one)

Meeting someone you know in an unlikely place

Finding a link with someone you meet

Repetition of very similar events

Simultaneous occurrence of events

An object reappearing

Finding a link with an object

Parallel stories with multiple matches

A matching number

A matching name

A matching date

Matching Music

How would you rank your coincidence story?

N/A

* Quite surprising (eg would only expect to happen to me once a year)

** Very surprising (eg a once-in-a-lifetime event)

*** Extraordinary (eg once-in-a-hundred-lifetimes)

**** Eerily bizarre (amazed this would ever happen to anybody)

email address

By ticking this box you agree that your email address can be forwarded to Wingspan Productions Ltd, who are making a BBC television programme about Chance and would like to feature Professor David Spiegelhalter's coincidence collection. In doing so you agree that the producers of the programme may contact you directly to ask you more about your story, though whether you decide to help them is entirely up to you. Your details will not be forwarded to any other party or used for marketing purposes.

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Vertical Tabs

I went to see a Flamengo Dancer Show in Barcelona. I was there with my family. We were at a long table with other people. The woman seated across from me started a conversation. We are both from Brooklyn, NY. We both went to elementary school at PS 277, about 10 years apart. We both were in Mrs. Gottesman's Kindergarten class! Small world.

My father, called Mark, was recently held in a queue for a coffee at a Starbucks and as such was asked for his name when he made his order. He gave it and moved on. The next person came up and gave their name, also as Mark. This happened two more times, giving 4 people named Mark congregating by accident in a row within this line. Not only was this a great coincidence, but also made things confusing when it finally came to collect the coffee!

You can put aside all of the stories you've heard. I'm the only source for the true meaning of real " Coincidences ". During the past thirty - five / forty years I've had anywhere from two thousand to many thousands of them. Depends on what would be considered to be meaningful .
Really began around 1982 , involved a second involvement with a particular person. That's when the dam broke. In earlier years I was aware that I would always do just the wrong thing in certain circumstances but did not place much importance in them.

I was working in the City of London and one lunchtime I strolled along Bishopsgate which is a busy road alongside Liverpool Street station. As I approached the Tesco store I saw a £5 note on the pavement, I stopped and looked around and it looked as if no-one had just dropped it so I went over to it and picked it up. My lucky day i thought! I moved on a few yards and there was a Big Issue selling his magazine, I'm pretty sure he didn't see my stoke of luck but I thought he probably needs it more than me and "easy come easy go" as they say.

My wife attended a forty year anniversary of her school year last Saturday. We still live in the area. Today she went to a yoga class, not her normal one but an earlier one for some reason. At the class she met one of the women she had met for the first time in forty years last Saturday. In discussion afterwards she told my wife that she had never been to this class before either. They then started talking about what they were doing now and it became apparent that she worked at the John Lewis shop in Trafford Centre. My brother used to work there so my wife mentioned this.

My closest friend's elderly dad died on September 5, 2000. Her youngest brother had died in a car accident in his twenties on September 5, 1981. Her younger brother then died of cancer at 50 years old on September 5, 2012. What are the odds of this?

My father had passed away just a few months prior when one evening my husband and I were chatting with an older gentleman at our church in south Texas, someone whom I knew casually by sight, no more. My husband asked him where he was from, and he named a small town in Kansas. The name of the town meant nothing to me, but Kansas certainly did.
"My family lived in (small college town), Kansas, until I was eight!" I said. "You're kidding," he said, "that's where I went to college." I looked at him again, trying to guess his age.

I was a late 30’s wife and mother who just moved to a new city. My husband and I became friendly with a couple down the street. The husband - “Chip” and I were both from a small city about 3 hours away. One evening we were hanging out with them talking about a high school. I mentioned I had passed on seeing the Police in concert but somehow made it to Duran Duran in our city in the early 80’s.

I grew up on Long Island and a high school friend had a long distance romance with a guy she met from
Media PA when we were in hs.I then went to College in PA and my roommate who was from Media PA also dated him. I remembered the name and confirmed it w my hs friend in another college.
My mom’s friend was housesitting for a family in NY and the daughter was supposed to get married on a cruise but the fiancé canceled it before and they decided to still go on the cruise.